Celebrating Ten Years of Transformation

Young people facing disadvantage have received over 27,500 hours of transformational mentoring from Olympic, Paralympic and world class athletes, through the charity of Double Olympic Gold Medallist Dame Kelly Holmes.

Dame Kelly Holmes Trust released the figures as part of their tenth year anniversary impact announcement. Since 2008, the charity has trained over 500 world class athletes to become transformational mentors and support the most vulnerable and disadvantage young people across the UK. Over the past decade, the Trust has ran programmes for care leavers, homeless people, young offenders and women at risk of sexual exploitation.

The Trust’s community and school based programmes develop the confidence, motivation and resilience of young people facing challenging circumstances and significant barriers to leading a positive life. Each programme contains a social action component, which has added over £23 million in social value to the UK economy since the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

At the five month stage of the charity’s flagship Get on Track programme, 66% of young people participating were in employment, education or training.

“When I started the Trust on the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, I wouldn’t have believed the impact and reach my charity would have had over the following ten years. What started as a way for athletes to help transition to a life beyond sport has grown into something phenomenal and I’m so proud of the impact our athletes have on the lives of young people who desperately need our support in London and across the UK.

“I am so grateful to all of partners and supporters, such as Sport England and players of People’s Postcode Lottery, who have made this possible. With their ongoing support we look forward to helping many more young people transform their lives in the years ahead.”

“I learned so much from the Get on Track programme I attended back in 2014. I had been living in care and looking after my son and working with Olympic athletes gave me a real opportunity to develop new skills. I developed leadership skills and gained confidence from working with the amazing world class athletes on the programme. The Trust has changed my life completely, I’m now the Employability & Projects Officer for the work experience programme at Southeastern. Without the Trust I don’t know where I would be or what I’d be doing.”

Stacey was a recovering alcoholic and was mentored by World Champion inline skater Jenna Downing, said:

“I came out of rehab in April 2015 and the Get on Track programme came at just the right time for me. Meeting Jenna, my athlete mentor, was great. She told me that I had potential and encouraged me to do new things and when I did something good she was proper proud of me. These people really do care about your welfare and how well you do in life.

"If it weren’t for Get on Track, I’d probably be locked up, gone back to drinking or be dead.”